food sandwiched between hospital and home life

Bruschetta

You can serve it on toasted thick bread rubbed with garlic and drizzled with olive oil. Or you can vary it slightly and serve it with biriani!

For the version shown in this picture:

Ingredients

4 medium, ripe tomatoes cut in half and each half into 6 pieces

6 fresh basil leaves chopped quite fine and a few left whole for garnish

juice of quarter of a lemon

2 table spoons of good olive oil

salt and pepper to season

For the garlic bread

3 – 4 medium slices of good crusty bread

clove of garlic, peeled

oilve oil

sea salt flakes

Method

In a bowl, add the chopped tomatoes, basil, lemon juice, oil and season to your preference. Allow to rest for about 10 minutes and a liquid will collect around the tomatoes as the salt draws out the water. Stir it in together from time to time.

While the tomatoes sit in their juice, grill, barbecue or toast the bread. Lightly rub the garlic clove onto one side of the toast. Drizzle olive oil all over the same side and sprinkle a few salt flakes on and rub it all in.

Place the toast on a plate and spoon over the tomatoes – try not to get too much juice with each spoon, as it will make the bread soggy. If you like, spoon a little of the juice over the top of the tomatoes and around the plate before you serve it. Garnish with a couple of basil leaves.

Alternative salsa

5 medium tomatoes – halved, discard the seeds and dice finely

half a red onion – finely diced

small bunch of fresh coriander, finely chopped, reserve a few leaves for garnish

small green chilli, de-seeded and finely chopped (optional)

juice of half a lemon

2 tablespoons of sunflower oil

Salt and pepper to season

Method

Place the tomatoes, coriander, onion and chili in a bowl and mix well, sprinkle over a little salt to season and grind over a few turn of black pepper. Mix the lemon juice and oil and emulsify with a fork, pour over the tomatoes and mix.